Unit X - College Two Rebecca French - 11053658

Graphic Design

Dragon’s Den Brief

The brief we chose was:“Anything goes, but express a new viewpoint on food.”

Our idea was a high-concept, blind-tasting, memory-based dining experience relying on the idea of food being a catalyst for memory.

The idea was inspired by Marcel Proust’s ‘Madeleine Moment’ from the story ‘Remembrance of Things Past’.

Taste and smell are big influences on involuntary memory.

With this in mind, we created a menu that doesn’t have food on it and instead has a collection of poems (or memories) and the general idea is that you would order based on the poem you most liked the sound of.

Slides from the Presentation

The Menu

Placemats

Group Evaluation: Dragon’s Den Brief

Overall, I think we worked quite well as a team and I’m really happy with the outcomes and feedback we’ve been given. We certainly pulled the project off quite well, despite our differences. Our group was very mixed in the fact that we were split down the middle from the very beginning. I think this was due to us having to join another group after coming up with separate ideas. It was probably also because we were mixed with people we wouldn’t necessarily consider working with at all unless we had to.

However, I thought that this made it a positive experience because it meant that we:

a) got to know them; b) see how they think/work and learn from it; and c) experience what it can be like in industry.

Sometimes you will be faced with people you don’t know or like but you have to make it work in order for the project to be successful. I feel like it has been an important learning curve for all of us, especially in terms of having to present a project/concept toa group of graphic designers who know nothing about us or the projects. It’s been a challenge and, overall, I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it has also affected my own methodology for future practice as I have discovered new ways of thinking and documenting ideas.

I have been drawing thumbnails a lot more too which I have found really useful, especially when it’s an idea I struggle to articulate verbally. Even though we are all from the same discipline (or rather, studying the same discipline), we each have a unique way of seeing things. In the industry (or ‘the real world’), different perspectives are very important, as more often than not you will have to collaborate or accept feedback from colleagues and clients who may have a completely different view point on something.

FOR EXAMPLE: In the presentation feedback for this group project, Ian Anderson was surprised that our concept was a pop-up cafe rather than a permanent restaurant. Although this was just his vision, sometimes you have to try not to be too precious about your ideas and you have to accept that your ideas can be changed to suit requirements/needs.

Feedback is important for development. This is the only real way that design progresses.

TOPMAN Brief The brief was to create a campaign that will promote the launch of an exciting new collection and suggest a marriage between science and fashion.

I chose to focus on the anatomical aspect of science (or, more specifically, human anatomy) and linked it to the idea of fashion being an integral part of our being - an important part of our personality. I named my collection ‘Down to the Bone’ because it not only encompasses all aspects of human anatomy but also connotes that fashion is part of us and that TOPMAN, as a company, live and breathe it.

I started looking at juxtaposing and superimposing anatomical drawings with fashion photography and feel that I have created some interesting compositions. I am quite pleased with the outcomes, considering I initially felt quite limited with the kinds of imagery I could use.

I have also used some found abstract imagery of circular patterns to represent and artistic (yet scientific) patterns found in the human body under the likes of microscopes. I feel these also complimented and enhanced the aesthetic I was going for.

Fashion is anintegral partof our being

Unit X as a whole

Overall, I’ve enjoyed the unit and I think the group-work to individual-work ratio has been quite nice. I liked that we had a mixture of the two because I find that it can be extremely bad working in a group for a long period of time if you’re put in a group with people who do no work - especially if your entire grade for a unit is dependant on other people. I’ve found in past projects that a lot of people are happy to be ‘carried’ by others and do no work, which I think is really unfair. So, I was really glad about the fact that they were fairly short projects.

In conclusion, this unit has been a big learning curve for me but also a break-through. I’m feeling like my work has started coming more into its own and I’m feeling much more confident about it than in previous assessments. I’m continuing to learn and make mistakes but it’s all part of the fun.